The church bells are chiming noon and Waldhurst lies under a blanket of fresh snow as I prepare this email.

Yes, it’s just that picturesque here today, as we near the end of the three-day weekend.

After the riot at the U.S. Capitol, I received several inquiries from readers about whether I’d be writing anything about it. I decided to give it a try, in my own digressive and solipsistic way.

Some of my thinking in this essay was influenced by this episode of the podcast Hi-Phi Nation, which uses philosophy to delve deeper into vexing national issues (and, I suppose, vice versa). I’ve been enjoying the heck out of this podcast and highly recommend it. It is not in any sense “academic,” and the host is great at breaking down complex topics into highly digestible form. (He’s a philosophy professor with a background in radio, I note from his bio; I bet he teaches a heckuva freshman “Intro to Philosophy” course.)

I’m also enjoying the podcast America Hysteria, or at least finding it highly informative. Of course, what it “informs” about are things like the threads of fascism, white supremacy, and anti-Semitism that weave through various at-first-glance silly-seeming American moral panics (e.g., needles in Halloween candy, Satanic ritual abuse in daycare centers, and so on), so maybe “enjoy” is the wrong word.

Anyway, enjoy this week’s detour into current events, such as it is, and thank you so much for reading!

Yrs.,

-Otto